The Mother Of Creativity
In 1992 I started writing a Science Fiction novel “The Simulan Game.” The book was written like a blockbuster movie, and my intention from the beginning was to turn it into a screenplay for an epic movie. So I decided to contact a movie director. One of the most brilliant screenwriters and directors of the last few years is Andrew Niccol.
I tried to contact him without success.
However I found that Andrew Niccol had not registered his own personal domain name. So I registered the domain name AndrewNiccol.com.
I set up a simple one page site (total cost under $50) which said this (I have shortened it here):
“Dear Andrew
I loved your movie “Lord of War” and I wanted to tell you personally.
Unfortunately I was unable to find any contact details for you whatsoever, so I hope you manage to find this!
I would like to talk about working with you on the screenplay of my novel, a futuristic thriller – The Simulan Game.
Please email me at _____________.
Kind Regards
Oliver Hille
Mobile phone _____________.
PS I am more than happy to give you your domain name!”
The website was up for over 4½ years, and I heard nothing!
However I had a written-down goal that I regularly affirmed and prayed out loud:
“My novel will become a bestseller and a movie.”
And
“Lord please bless my novel to become a bestseller and a movie.”
It was early September 2011, and I had not done these affirmations for quite a few weeks, but I did them on a Monday and Tuesday. Then on the Thursday of that week, I received an email from Andrew Niccol’s assistant saying:
“Andrew would be more than happy to read your screenplay…”
She added that Andrew Niccol had a small window between movies to read my screenplay, and I needed to have it to him the week after next.
I have to emphasize that in my opinion Andrew Niccol is one of the greatest screenwriters of the last 20 years. He won an Oscar nomination for writing the screenplay for “The Truman Show” and wrote and directed both “Gattaca” and “Lord of War”. Both “The Truman Show” and “Gattaca” were brilliantly original and insightful, and “Lord of War” has such clever and well written dialogue that I feel like I am in the presence of a master when I am watching it.
So obviously it was very exciting to think that this genius is going to read my screenplay.
However I had a number of problems:
1. My novel was less than half written.
2. I had never written a screenplay before, and I had no idea how to write one.
3. I did not know how to format a screenplay.
4. I was just a few weeks away from launching this book you are reading, and was very busy every day with that.
5. Because I had put all of my other projects on hold to launch this book, I was already earning no money (except my passive income) and writing a screenplay was another big project that I might never be paid for. And even if I did, it would be years until the movie was made and I got paid.
But of course I had just been handed a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I did the only thing I could do – I grabbed it with both hands.
Fortunately, some years before I had purchased the brilliant book “How to Write a Selling Screenplay” by Christopher Keane. However, it had sat in my bookshelf unread.
I started reading it. The first four chapters are about how to actually set about writing a screenplay. So I devoured those chapters first to get me in the right frame of mind.
Then I set about finishing my novel.
At that stage I had written 32,986 words so the novel was literally one third written (an average novel is around 100,000 words).
Now here is the interesting part: I started writing the novel in 1992, so it had embarrassingly taken me 19 years to write the first third. Guess what? Finishing the novel took me five days. Shame on me is all I can say.
I used to think that an hour a day of writing was something to celebrate. But in those five days, I only did three things: eat, sleep and write.
An amazing thing happened – I wrote with more energy, happiness and creativity than ever in my life before. Dialogue and concepts and ideas cascaded into my mind. Not for even one minute did I have a hesitation or “writers’ block”.
And when I wasn’t writing, I had a smile on my face and a spring in my step – I was energized by the process.
Also because I generally sit in a chair at a computer for many hours a day, I sometimes get a sore back if I sit for too long. But this time I sat for twice as long every day and my back was fine!
So at the end of five days, I had a novel. But because it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, I re-wrote it, changed it and improved it. Then I read through and edited it, and I had some new breakthrough ideas, and I re-wrote parts of it again. Finally I had a novel I was happy with. Now I needed to convert it into a screenplay.
I emailed Andrew Niccol’s assistant to ask what font I should use. She told me that it was Courier 12pt but that Andrew Niccol used the industry standard screenwriting software “Final Draft”. I didn’t know there was such a thing as screenwriting software and I had never heard of “Final Draft”. But I wanted to do the best possible job for Andrew Niccol so I knew I had to present him with my screenplay as a Final Draft document.
So in five marathon days, I purchased and downloaded Final Draft, learned how to use it, and I re-wrote my novel as a screenplay. Now that might sound easy but a screenplay is radically different to a novel. Assuming you don’t use a voiceover (which I didn’t) you cannot describe how a character feels or his/her motivations.
That all has to be conveyed using a visual medium or character dialogue. Also a screenwriter has to explain in detail to the director what is happening in each scene e.g. where and at what time the scene takes place, where the camera is in relation to the characters, do we pan or zoom, use slow or normal film speed, etc. Also in a screenplay you have to describe everything in present tense whereas my novel is in past tense.
Fortunately I thought about my novel as a movie from when I first started writing it, so I knew how I wanted it to look and feel on screen. But even so, re-writing a scene for a screenplay can be complicated.
Also when you are re-writing from a novel to a screenplay, you go through everything in such detail that you naturally think of improvements and new ideas and better dialogue. So this became another full re-write.
When I finally finished the screenplay, five marathon days later, I sent a copy to my Dad to edit (God bless him – he did it in under 24 hours). Then I fully edited it again.
Finally after 15 days of non-stop writing, I emailed the screenplay to Andrew Niccol.
Although my back was fine, that night my legs were so sore from sitting in one place for nearly 200 hours in 15 days, that I could not sleep. I got up and checked on Google for the symptoms of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)! Thankfully I did not have DVT but it took a few days for the pain to go away!
Even if nothing ever comes of it, I have learned some fantastic lessons that were worth all of my hard work.
Lesson 1: Creativity
“Deadlines are the Mother of Creativity.”
I was presented with a deadline and a massive reward for completion. I did what I thought was inhumanly possible. But not only that, I was forced into a creative peak state. I didn’t have to grind my way through it – the process energized me and the ideas literally jumped off my fingers.
It is almost certain that YOU have an unfinished creative project:
• Music;
• Art;
• Writing;
• Photography;
• Whatever.I bet if someone credible walked up to you and said “I will give you $50,000 in cash if you complete your project in 30 days.” you would do it – and it would be fantastic.
Somehow we need to force ourselves to have deadlines that really mean something to us. Here are some suggestions:
1. Make a commitment to me! Yes, I am willing to keep you accountable. Here is how.
Make your commitment on the following webpage:
www.LifestyleBook.com/my-commitment
This is a confidential commitment between you and me. Your commitment must include a date. I will email you on your commitment date to confirm.
Please note: This is a real commitment. By committing, you are giving me permission to kick your butt if you do not follow through. Please do not commit unless you are willing to put everything else aside to make your commitment come to pass.
You may also want to use this web page if you have already completed your project, but you have a fear of failure and you have not yet sent off your manuscript (or whatever you have done). For example, “I commit that I will post my novel off to a publisher within 14 days.”
2. Commit to your own accountability group i.e. close friends or people you respect a lot.
3. Commit to someone that you will give $1,000 to an organization you are against if you do not meet your deadline.
4. Write to one of your idols in the relevant industry and tell them you will post your:
• Screenplay,
• Photo of your artwork,
• CD of your song,
• Etc.- to them within 30 days. That will force you to act.
Remember I had no idea what I was capable of until I was forced to act.
Lesson 2: Focus and Work Ethic
Writing 12 + hours a day is not like working in a factory or a corporate environment for 12 hours a day. I know, I have done all three. Creative writing is taxing on every level, especially with a multi-faceted novel. I considered it almost impossible to write for more than a few hours a day – but I was wrong.
Lesson 3: There is no such thing as “Writers’ Block”
Okay I don’t want to get myself in trouble with the millions of far more talented writers out there than me. And I am sure that many great writers had periods when the writing wouldn’t come. But the great writers I have studied wrote every single day whether they felt like it or not, and whether they felt inspired or not.
I can tell you from this experience that I have never had so many ideas and been so creative. I now believe we all have a massive capacity for creativity that we are simply not tapping in to.
I believe we are all created in the image of God, and He has infinite creativity. It therefore follows that we too must be creative.
I believe that YOU are capable of achieving way more than you have ever dreamed.
If I believe in you and God believes in you, perhaps that is enough for you to take a leap of faith and reach for the stars in whatever it is you dream of achieving!
The name of my novel is “The Simulan Game.” If you are interested in updates on what happens with my screenplay and my novel, including the planned launch of the novel in 2012, please sign up on this website:
www.TheSimulanGame.com